The Aboriginal language taught more than Spanish in NSW schools

Learning a new language generally includes certain signposts of ability; introducing yourself, counting to 10, asking for directions.

Junior school students at St Andrew's Cathedral College are already well beyond those stages in their lessons in Wiradjuri, one of Australia's largest Aboriginal languages, and recently sang in it when Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove visited the school.

Primary school students at St Andrew's Cathedral College start learning an Aboriginal language as early as Kindergarten.Credit:Janie Barrett

Students at the junior school and St Andrew's Indigenous Gawura school are taught Wiradjuri from year 3 and kindergarten respectively, and the school is also planning to teach the language to year 9 and 10 Aboriginal Studies students from next year.

"We want to teach them not just about, but through Aboriginal culture, and in a very real sense language is culture," head of St Andrew's John Collier said.

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"It's made a big difference to the Gawura students because it gives them pride in their cultural heritage and speaks to the identity, and it gives junior school students cultural awareness."

Three Aboriginal languages appeared in the top 15 languages studied in NSW government primary schools for the first time last year, with 3,236 students learning Wiradjuri, which is now taught more than Korean, Spanish, Indonesian and Hindi.

There were also 1,294 students across the state learning Gumbaynggir and 962 learning Bundjalung.

Numbers have increased significantly since 2015, when about 1500 primary students were learning Wiradjuri, 286 were learning Gumbaynggir and 351 were learning Bundjalung.

The first three students also completed the newly created Aboriginal Languages course for the HSC last year and another five are set to complete it this year.

The increases could be linked to a number of initiatives to preserve and increase the take-up of Aboriginal languages, including the NSW Department of Education's language and culture nests aimed at creating communities of schools that can share teaching resources.

The NSW government also enacted legislation aimed at growing Aboriginal languages last year, which includes the establishment of an Aboriginal Language Establishment Advisory Group, development of a five-year strategic plan and a trust to provide resources.

However, Dr Collier said that while St Andrew's has a Wiradjuri teacher who learnt the language from other family members, a lot of schools wanting to offer Aboriginal languages struggle to find teachers.

He said the school is also looking to start offering the Aboriginal Languages course to HSC students.

"We're looking at launching it, if we get the student numbers we'd like to do it in 2020," Dr Collier said.

"If we lose Aboriginal languages, that's a lot of our Aboriginal heritage. A lot are already extinct and it's very important that we maintain the others.

"Actually teaching them is a nod to preservation because they're passed on to a younger generation."